Members of the Ecology Club gather cans and bottles following Saturday's game between Georgia and Central Michigan.

Students encourage gameday recycling

By: CAREY O'NEIL

Posted: 9/8/08

Students came out in force on gameday to help tailgaters find better ways to handle their trash.

Members of the Ecology Club asked fans tailgating before the Central Michigan game to recycle bottles and cans in containers donated by the Recycling Division. They worked with the Go Green Alliance, Habitat for Humanity and the Athens-Clarke County Recycling Division.

Volunteers also stood outside Sanford Stadium gates before kickoff, collecting the contraband drink containers that otherwise may have ended up as trash.

"If they know we're doing it, they're generally pretty responsive," Calley Mersmann, a sophomore from Snellville, said. "There's just so many of them and so few volunteers."

Still, members of the club said they were happy with Saturday's turnout of 25 workers.

"We treated these past two weekends like pilot programs" said Mark Milby, a junior from Marietta and co-president of the Ecology Club.

"I think they were very well-received. "Programs like this are so lacking that when people see it, it's such a surprise," Milby said. "Whenever I would pass someone they'd thank me."

Workers recycled almost twice the amount collected at the Georgia Southern game, earning $120 for Habitat for Humanity. With this past weekend's success, the Recycling Division plans to step up its efforts, giving the volunteers three to four times as many recycling bins for the Alabama game.

Still, Milby said he worries the group's efforts will not be enough.

"The problem is the University has a much less than comprehensive plan for recycling on campus," he said.

Milby scrapped a petition for increased recycling on campus last year when he learned the Physical Plant planned to expand efforts.

"The Athletic Association, who's in charge, doesn't mandate the sanitation companies do recycling," Christina Faust, a senior from Athens, said.

This information motivated the Ecology Club to begin its recycling program, Milby said.

"We're still new, so we're viewed as a renegade student organization," he said. "But we're going to collect as much as we can or we're gonna go down trying."

The Athens-Clarke County landfill is quickly running out of space, and recycling diverts the landfill's flow of garbage, prolonging the life of the county's trash depository, he said.

Though the University has not enacted a completely comprehensive recycling program, the Athletic Association has hired a sanitation company to cover North Campus, an area with a high trash density.

Steps like these motivate Milby to keep advocating for recycling.